Cigarette extinguisher



April 3, 1956 K. J. GREELEY 2,740,411

CIGARETTE EXTINGUISHER Filed Oct. 12, 1954 Fig.

Kenneth J. Greeley INVENTOR.

United States Patent CIGARETTE EXTINGUISHER Kenneth J. Greeley, Cedar Glen, alit'. Application October 12, 1954, Serial No. 461,745 1 Claim. (Cl. 131-256) My invention relates to improvements in cigarette extinguishers of the squeezing and crushing type.

The primary object of my invention is to provide a cigarette extinguisher for installation in an automobile and into which lighted cigarette butts may be dropped and extinguished by a hand lever operated flexible squeezing and crushing means from which the extinguished cigarettes will drop into a closed storage drawer, all without having the automobile driver take his eyes from the road.

Another object is to provide in such a cigarette extinguisher, a resilient compressible chute deformable under operation of a hand lever to squeeze and extinguish lighted cigarette butts.

Still another object is to provide acigarette extinguisher for accomplishing the above which is simple in construction, foolproof, and adapted for easy installation in an automobile, or for use on a smoking stand, table or the like.

Other and subordinate objects together with the precise nature of my improvements will become readily apparent when the succeeding description and claim are read with reference to the drawing accompanying and forming a part of this specification.

In said drawing:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary view in perspective illustrating my improved cigarette extinguisher installed on the instrument panel of an automobile;

Figure 2 is an enlarged view in vertical longitudinal section taken on the line 22 of Figure 1 and showing the chute and other parts in normal position;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view similar to Figure 2 showing how the chute is initially deformed or flexed by the hand lever to extinguish a lighted cigarette butt;

Figure 4 is another fragmentary sectional view similar to Figure 3 showing how the chute is deformed or flexed to crush the cigarette butt into flattened condition;

Figure 5 is a view in horizontal section taken along the line 5-5 of Figure 2 and showing the drawer opened part way, and

Figures 6 and 7 are enlarged fragmentary views in perspective illustrating how the cigarette butt is flattened from its normal shape.

Referring to the drawing by numerals, the cigarette extinguisher of my invention comprises a generally rectangular, preferably metal, casing 1 having top and bottom walls 3, 5, front and rear walls 7, 9 and side walls 11.

A horizontal partition plate 13 divides the casing 1 into a bottom drawer housing chamber 15 and an upper chamber 17 for cigarette extinguishing means presently to be described. The side walls 11 above the partition plate 13 are spaced close together so that the chamber 17 is reduced in width as compared with the width of the chamber 15 for a particular purpose presently apparent.

A drawer 19 for containing extinguished cigarette butts, and which is also preferably formed of metal, is slidably fitted in the chamber 15 for sliding rearwardly out of the same through an opening 21 in the rear wall 9 and isprovided with a rear end'23 formed with a finger hold socket 25 therein, said rear end 23 closing the opening 21 when the drawer 19 is closed.

A suitable bowed, leaf spring 27 riveted, as .at 29, to the bottom of the partition plate 13 depends into the drawer 19 to engage the front end 31 of said drawer and prevent complete removal of said drawer until desired, said spring being flexible upwardly by a finger inserted into the half opened drawer to permit complete removal of the drawer 19 for emptying purposes.

The cigarette extinguishing means comprises a pair of opposite, front and rear, upright cigarette flexible resilient bars 33 and 35 in the front part of the upper chamber 17 spaced apart with their broad sides facing and side edges slidably engaging the side walls 11, and which are formed of resilient thin metal flexible for deforming to squeeze and compress a cigarette butt therebetween and flatten the same.

The bars 33 and 35 normally converge downwardly to form therebetween a restricted throat 37 of less width from one bar to the other than the thickness of the con ventional cigarette butt andfrom which the lower ends 39 and 41 of said bars 33 and relatively and are riveted as at 43 and 45 to the partition plate 13.

As shown in Figure 2, the bars 33 and 35 when in normal position form with the side walls 11, and in the upper chamber 17, a chute 47 into which cigarette butts may be dropped and which, in the median plane thereof is of hourglass form with the restricted throat 37 above a downwardly flaring discharge end 49 arranged in said chute to discharge into the drawer 19 through a discharge opening 51 in the partition plate 13 at said lower end 49, the chute 47 having resilient, flexible front and rear walls formed by the bars 33 and 35 whereby said chute is deformable for squeezing and crushing purposes. It will be noted that the chute 47 is of a width between the side walls 11 to maintain a cigarette butt dropped downwardly in the chute in an upright position.

A V-shaped hopper 53, for receiving cigarette butts, extends downwardly into the upper end of the chute 47 between said bars, 33 and 35 and said walls 11, and through an opening 55 in the top wall 3 and said hopper opens at one side as at 57 into said chute. The hopper is Welded to the top wall 3 as at 59, and is provided with a cover 61 suitably hinged thereto as at 63. The front bar 33 has its upper end 65 bent and fitted and confined in the upper front corner of the chamber 17 between the front wall 7 and the hopper 53. The upper end 67 of the rear bar 35 slidably engages the rear side of the hopper 53 for a purpose presently apparent.

Manipulative means for deforming the rear wall of the chute 47, by flexing the bar 35, is provided comprising a hand lever 69 in the upper chamber 17 pivoted at 71 intermediate its ends for vertical swinging from a normal position and having a rear hand grip end 73 extending out of a slot 75 in the rear wall 9, said lever also having a downwardly curved hooked front end 77 operatively associated with the bar 35 in a manner presently to be explained.

A coil spring 79 having its ends connected to the top wall 3 and to said lever 69 yieldingly maintains the rear end 73 against the upper end of the slot 75 and establishes the normal position of said lever 69 in which its front end 77 is positioned adjacent to the lower end 41 of the rear bar 35 and is movable upwardly into wiping engagement with the rear bar 35 by downward movement of the rear end 73 of the lever, whereby to flex said bar 35 progressively beginning below the throat 37 and inwardly of the chute'until said lever engages the lower end of the slot 75.

The described extinguisher, when installed in an auto- 35 diverge downwardly mobile, is preferably mounted on the front side of the instrument panel 81 by means of a bracket 83 riveted, as at 85 and 87 to the top wall 3 of the casing 1 and to said panel and with the hopper 53 extending into a top opening 89 in said panel, a slot 91 being provided in said panel out of which the rear end 73 of the hand lever may extend, and an opening 93 being provided in said panel for extension of the drawer 19 out of said panel. The opening 93 is formed by punching out a portion'of said panel 81 to form a ledge 95 on which the bottom wall of the casing 1 seats.

In operating the described extinguisher, lighted cigarette butts, one of which is shown at 97 in Fig. 3, are dropped into the chute 47 through the hopper 53 lighted end lowermost. The lighted end of a dropped butt 97 lodges in and is stopped in its descent by the throat 37. The hand lever 69 is then swung from normal position in the manner already described, which causes the front end 77 to wipe upwardly along the rear bar 35 starting below the throat 37. As said end 77 moves upwardly it exerts a forward thrust against said rear bar 35 and flexes the same along the butt 97 inwardly of the chute 47, in other words forwardly toward the front squeeze bar 33 thereby pressing the cigarette butt 97 against said front bar which is thereby flexed forwardly by pressure of the butt thereagmnst. Thus the bars 33 and 35 are caused to co-act to flatten and crush the butt 97 extinguishing the same as shown in Figures 4 and 7. During initial upward movement of the front end '77 of the hand lever 69, said end thrusts against the rear bar 35 opposite the throat 37 and contracts said throat against the weaker lighted end of the butt 97 to extinguish said end as shown in Figure 3. Upon release of the hand lever 69, it will be returned to normal position, by the spring 79, and the squeeze bars 33, 35 will return to normal position so that the throat 37 will assume its normal size and permit the flattened butt 97 to drop through the throat 37 and the 4 discharge end 49 of said chute, and the opening 51 into the drawer 19.

Obviously, the described cigarette extinguisher may be detached as a unit from the instrument panel 81 and used as a separate unit on a smoking stand, table or counter.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

A cigarette extinguisher comprising a compressible chute down'which a lighted cigarette butt may be dropped lighted end foremost comprising a pair of rigidly mounted side walls, and a pair of opposite substantially vertical bars between the side walls having upper and lower ends the latter fixedly secured, an open bottom hopper depending between said side walls and the upper ends of the bars and into which a cigarette butt may be dropped to pass therethrough into said chute, said bars converging downwardly to form a normally open restricted throat into which the lighted end of a cigarette butt may lodge and be held, one of said bars being flexible and bendable from a normal position toward the other to contract the throat for squeezing the butt between the bars to extinguish the lighted end and crush and flatten the butt, and a hand lever pivoted between said walls for operation to wipingly engage said one bar and bend the same and then disengage the bar, said one bar being resilient and adapted to return to normal position after bending thereof when said lever is disengaged therefrom so that the extinguished flattened butt may fall out of the throat, the upper end of said one bar slidably engaging said hopper during bending of the bar to guide said end and compensate for bending of said bar.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,804,102 Kershaw May 5, 1931 1,912,598 Snadden June 6, 1933 1,934,401 Boller Nov. 7, 1933 

